Diabetes Educational Event
Written by TRS Staff MemberLast month we held an educational session, titled "Planning a Healthy Diet with Diabetes" with one of our clients in Northeast Arkansas and Amber, one of our Wellness Coaches.
Say that at your last physical you were referred to a cardiologist. What happens next?
Visiting your cardiologist can be stressful, and a lot of the time we forget everything we want to know. Here are some tips to help you prepare.
This is about the employees who are on the fence, or who don’t know what your wellness program has to offer. The ones, who want to improve their health but are unsure how, are nervous to begin, or who don’t know what their resources are. Those are the employees you need to target. And here is what’s standing in their way:
1. Perceived invasion of privacy.
- Who is getting my information? Is my employer using information to make decisions on promotions or retention? Is my health coverage going to be affected negatively if I participate?
- No one likes to think that personal information is going to be shared with co-workers or supervisors. With today’s world of social media, YouTube etc., most of us have learned to be always on-guard about what little true privacy we have left.
- See above. Also, if I feel ok, is it better to go looking for something to be wrong with me?
3. Fear of Failure
- If I start this weight loss challenge in front of all my co-workers, and don’t succeed, will they think that I’m lazy or incompetent?
- It’s a lot less scary to never try than it is to try to change and fail.
- In many cases, either the family is resistant to change (My wife does all of the cooking so I have no control over it, or my husband doesn’t want to eat “diet food”.) Does your wellness program offer services to family members as well? This may empower family to make positive changes. It’s no secret that if everyone in the family is trying to make healthy changes, things go a lot more smoothly.
- Probably the single biggest barrier to participation. Some of your employees probably don’t even know that you offer a wellness program. Of those that do, I’d be willing to put money on the fact that many don’t understand the ins and outs of it.
Partnering with a wellness team that understands these barriers and the stages of change is critical to the success of the employee and of the program as a whole. It’s better to work with a provider that can help reach these employees who are ready or close to ready for change than it is to mandate a program for everyone.
Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to learn more about TRS|Wellness and our approach to helping your program and employees succeed.